Despite a projected shrink in ridership and escalating costs, the BART board on Thursday approved a funding plan to build a people mover connecting the Coliseum Station and the Oakland airport.

The project was billed as a chance to create thousands of new jobs and the 3.2 mile airport connector would transport passengers on an elevated track that bypasses street traffic and would cost as much as much as $552 million, according to current estimates. At the start of the decade the project's price tag was just $130 million.

Although the airport connector has been discussed for about 30 years and has had numerous starts and stops, the flailing economy may have given it the financial lift it needs to move forward with the infusion of $70 million in federal stimulus funds.

"Are we taking a chance? Yes. But it does provide jobs," said BART Director Carole Ward Allen, who represents the economically depressed East Oakland district where the project would be built.

"We can move forward on a project that will serve the city, the region and the nation," she added later.

The automated Oakland airport connector would replace the shuttle bus service, known as AirBART, which runs on surface streets and can be slowed by congestion. The goal is to have the airport link running by 2013.

It would be the second Bay Area airport, after San Francisco, to be linked to BART. The round-trip fare would cost $12 under the current plan. The price doesn't include the BART fare to and from the Coliseum Station.

Federal loans

The elected BART board voted 7-1 to move forward with the final piece of its financing plan: applying for up to $150 million in federal transportation loans. Director Tom Radulovich cast the dissenting vote. Director Gail Murray was absent.

The decision came after a five-hour public hearing at BART headquarters in which more than 70 people - split almost evenly for and against the project - testified.

Those opposed included an organized coalition of transit activists and unions representing BART employees who say the money could be better spent maintaining and improving existing transit operations serving the East Bay. And, they said, the project ultimately could force BART to cut service, raise fares and lay off workers if the construction costs spiral and strain the capital projects budget, shifting money away from operations at a time when the agency already faces major funding problems.

"It will dig your fiscal hole even deeper," warned Jesse Hunt, president of the union that represents BART train operators and station agents.

Opponents of the airport connector long have proposed improved bus service as a less costly and comparable alternative, but BART officials have shot down the idea.

The number of riders projected to use the people mover has dropped significantly in recent years. That's due, in part, to fewer people using the Oakland airport and because earlier plans to add one or two stations along the route have been put on hold.

4,350 people a day

Now, officials are anticipating that 4,350 people a day would use the connector by 2020 instead of the 13,540 once predicted.

BART brass offered assurances that the project would pencil out.

Their determination to move forward with the long-stalled project was buoyed by an alliance of Oakland business groups and unions representing the building trades. Jerry Oaks, a laborer with Local 304, put a human face on their lobbying efforts.

"I've been out of work since 10-10-2008. I've never been out of work this long," he said. "This project will bring in jobs." BART officials say the project would generate 13,000 direct and indirect jobs.

The board's action does not guarantee the airport connector would be built.

The Port of Oakland, which runs the airport, would be on the hook for $44 million and needs to sign off on the plan. The idea is to tack an extra charge on plane tickets to pay for the airport connector.

In addition, BART still has to see whether the bids come in within the projected budget and whether the interest rate on the federal loan, which fluctuates, would be affordable.